US-based e-commerce company Fab.com has begun talks with custom manufacturing company PCH International to be acquired for an undetermined amount between $15m and $50m, according to TechCrunch.
Founded in 2010 as a social network for gay men, Fab changed pivoted the following year to a daily deals model whereby designers could upload their products to purchased by the e-commerce site’s users.
Fab has raised approximately $336m over five funding rounds, including a $150m series D round in June 2013 backed by internet company Tencent, conglomerate Itochu, Docomo Capital, the corporate venturing arm of telecommunications company NTT Docomo, Atomico, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, RTP Capital, Pinnacle Ventures and Lars Hinrichs.
Media companies Times of India Group and Washington Post Company have invested in Fab in the past but are not listed on the company’s website as one of their investors, which also include Baroda Ventures, First Round, SoftTech VC, Zelkova Ventures and A-Grade Investments.
Although reports at the time of the series D round stated Fab was valued Fab at $1bn, its value has sharply dropped in the months since, and by August 2014, Fab was in discussions with a number of prospective buyers to sell the company for $100m.
Contractual agreements between Fab and PCH are said to be in the very early stages, but the deal is understood to include a provision involving some of Fab’s assets transferring to founder Jason Goldberg’s new furniture design company Hem, while the rest will be bought by PCH.